Background: Threatened abortion, also known as threatened miscarriage, is a common complication in pregnant women; it seriously harms their physical and mental health. However, there are only a few reports on acupuncture treatment to address threatened abortion.
Case: A woman had a threatened abortion. She experienced vaginal bleeding and had an intrauterine hematoma after embryo transfer. She declined medication use because of concerns about the adverse effects to the embryo. Therefore, acupuncture treatment was performed to relieve her pain and save the fetus.
Results: After the 4th treatment, her vaginal bleeding stopped, and her uterine effusion was reduced to 27 × 22 mm. After the 11th treatment, the uterine effusion decreased even more-to 40 × 7 mm-and disappeared completely after the 16th treatment. No adverse events occurred during her treatment, and her bleeding and uterine effusion did not recur. The fetus developed normally, and the child was born. This child is currently healthy and growing.
Conclusions: By stimulating the body's acupoints, acupuncture can be used to adjust the Qi and Blood, and consolidate Extraordinary Vessels, mainly in Chong and Ren, to prevent miscarriage. This case report provided information about the treatment of a threatened abortion and illustrated how acupuncture was be used to stop a threatened abortion. This report can be utilized to support high-quality randomized controlled trials. Given that there is a lack of standardized and safe procedures for treating threatened abortion by using acupuncture, this research is needed.
Keywords: acupuncture; case report; intrauterine hematoma; threatened abortion; threatened miscarriage.
Copyright 2023, Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers.